Apple Xcode vs Xamarin Platform comparison

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Apple Xcode and Xamarin Platform based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Mobile Development Platforms solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Apple Xcode vs. Xamarin Platform Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"Xcode is pretty smart. It's easy to set up and works perfectly on Android.""It is stable and user-friendly.""It is complete and relevant to the job at hand.""The tool's most valuable features are debugging and code management.""We like the ease of access and navigation that this solution provides.""The most valuable feature of Apple Xcode is that it is up to date.""Xcode has quite a bit of code error checking built-in, which is great. It also goes a step further and suggests fixes."

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"Xamarin.Forms reduced the effort and time to build and market our solution, market our features, and get our solution into production.""Recently, Xamarin has added a lot of features such as Effects, Behaviors, Triggers, etc. This has made the UI user-friendly, lively, and attractive.""We were able to optimize the service organization for one of our clients.""I think the best part about Xamarin is that you can create apps for both platforms using one source code. That's the most powerful feature. When you develop something for Android, it also builds for iVerse as well. The cross-platform aspect of Xamarin is unique. The ability to develop both apps with a single code base is something very unique.""Xamarin.Forms exposes a complete cross-platform UI toolkit for .NET developers. The advantage is that a single team can target multiple platforms (Android, iOS, and Windows) on a shared C# codebase.""The best part while using the Xamarin Platform is a cross-platform application. We could execute iOS and Android while writing a single line of code.""Because of the C# programming language, we can train our .NET developers to learn Xamarin and develop mobile apps easily.""Xamarin Platform's best features are its single codebase, the support from Microsoft, and the free libraries."

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Cons
"The size of Apple Xcode could improve. It is too large.""As Apple has introduced more and more features on top of Xcode, it sometimes, but very rarely, hangs.""There is a drag-and-drop visual system, but as soon as you do something dynamic, then you are unable to use it.""It consists of multiple components and needs a simplified process. This particular area could be more stable.""There should be additional documentation on App Store deployment. In terms of features, they're pretty much on top of where they need to go. I've been happy with its progress so far. As things evolve, they need to evolve to match that need.""It is a bit challenging to sign in.""We would like a 'light' version of this solution to be developed, as it currently uses a lot of memory space."

More Apple Xcode Cons →

"There is limited support for UX widgets.""The solution struggles a little bit with binding libraries.""The file size is a bit big, so you have to make certain layers.""Xamarin Platform is missing the code renderer.""The android application compilation time needs to be reduced.""The architecture in the Xamarin Platform has to improve, there are some features missing.""The solution does not include Hot Reload which is painful because it causes us to wait quite some time for huge builds.""It would be better if they offered more certifications. They offer a number of certifications for Azure but none for Xamarin. This is something that could be provided for developers to show off their competency. Technical support could be better."

More Xamarin Platform Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "It has an annual renewal."
  • "There are no licensing costs for Xcode and no hidden charges. You just download it."
  • "You can start off using Apple Xcode for free but if you start using some more of their enhanced features, it's going to be hundreds of dollars a month. There are corporate licenses but most individual users will not be worried about the corporate license, only your CFO will or the person in charge of the software department."
  • "We don't have to pay for Apple Xcode's licenses."
  • More Apple Xcode Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "In most cases, it is sufficient to have free/community license. But if you plan to seriously develop production-level, highly polished apps, you need to use Xamarin.Profiler and the professional or enterprise license."
  • "For personal use, the Community Edition is free."
  • "This is a free product, so there is zero investment on licenses and IDE."
  • "Xamarin is available under several licensing arrangements. Each developer needs one license at least. All features, especially the Profiler, unlock only with the highest tier."
  • "It saved a lot of time and resources needed to develop a cross platform mobile app."
  • "Xamarin is free, or comes with Visual Studio. Therefore, it is very profitable."
  • "The price of the Xamarin Platform is not expensive. However, the price of the solution depends on the application that is made. For example, if you have small applications, it's different from large or enterprise applications."
  • "There's no licensing cost for Xamarin."
  • More Xamarin Platform Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The tool's most valuable features are debugging and code management.
    Top Answer:Apple Xcode's usability for developers needs enhancement. It consists of multiple components and needs a simplified process. This particular area could be more stable.
    Top Answer:Xamarin.Forms reduced the effort and time to build and market our solution, market our features, and get our solution into production.
    Top Answer:You can build in Xamarin without paying any money. What costs money is the IDE, Visual Studio, Professional, or Enterprise edition. What would cost you money if you're building apps for the Apple… more »
    Top Answer:There are issues with Xamarin, such as when you run into errors doing something called linking. When you build your solution, you can use Linker, which can give you errors if you don't link properly… more »
    Ranking
    Views
    942
    Comparisons
    364
    Reviews
    5
    Average Words per Review
    365
    Rating
    7.4
    Views
    1,517
    Comparisons
    1,062
    Reviews
    19
    Average Words per Review
    577
    Rating
    7.9
    Comparisons
    Learn More
    Overview

    Apple Xcode is a comprehensive suite of developer tools for producing programs for the Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple TV. Xcode creates a streamlined workflow for user interface design, coding, testing, debugging, and app store submission.

    Xcode is an IDE (integrated development environment) designed for both novice and expert developers to use, and it is the only tool that is officially supported for designing and uploading programs to Apple's app store. Xcode contains all of the tools required to construct an app in a single software package, including a text editor, a compiler, and a build system. It includes a number of tools to speed up the development process so that seasoned developers may produce apps with lightning speed and beginners can create apps with ease.

    As a code editor, Xcode supports a wide range of programming languages, including C, C++, Objective-C, Objective-C++, Java, AppleScript, Python, Ruby, ResEdit, and Swift.

    It employs the Java, Carbon, and Cocoa programming models.

    Apple XCode Features

    Apple XCode has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

    • The new single target supports many platforms and conditionally includes dependencies, code, resources, and build parameters for particular systems.
    • Downloadable simulator runtimes for the most recent versions of watchOS and tvOS.
    • To improve parallelism and spot build performance concerns, a new assistant editor can build logs and display the build timeline.
    • Regex support, including syntax highlighting and playgrounds inline results for rapid iteration.
    • Support for iPadOS DriverKit driver development.
    • Asset catalog allows you to upload a single 1024 x 1024 pixel app icon, and it will be automatically resized for the target.
    • Debugging: The memory graph debugger now shows all incoming and outgoing memory graph references.
    • Documentation: Swift-DocC facilitates the creation of documentation for Objective-C and C APIs. The Swift-DocC documentation that Xcode 14 generates is now compatible with the majority of managed hosting services, including GitHub Pages.
    • Instruments: The new Swift Concurrency template tracks the application and behavior of Swift's concurrency primitives. The new Hang Tracing tool demonstrates when the main thread of an app is unable to handle incoming events.
    • Localization: Swift localization packages can be exported.
    • Organizer: New diagnostic reports on app hangs.
    • Previews: New design supports automatically generated variants for appearance, accessibility, sizes, and more. It is interactive by default.
    • Source editor: Enhanced code completion with top-level initializers, overloads consolidated into a single row, and a better default argument experience. As you scroll, code structure pins to the top of the source editor. Jump to definition and callers includes a brand-new user interface that assists you in distinguishing between overloads and call locations.
    • Swift packages in Xcode, command and build plug-in integration.

    Reviews from Real Users

    A founder of a tech vendor writes of the solution, “It was essential. You can't develop mobile apps for the Apple platforms without it. I would rate it a nine out of 10 for its consistency. It keeps evolving.”

    Xamarin is an open-source platform for developing modern and performant applications for iOS, Android, and Windows using.NET. Xamarin is an abstraction layer that manages how shared code is communicated to the platform's underlying code. Xamarin is for developers with the two following goals:

    • Cross-platform sharing of code, tests, and business logic.

    • Writing cross-platform apps in C# with Visual Studio.

    Xamarin allows developers to share an average of 90% of their program across platforms. This enables programmers to achieve native performance, look, and feel on each platform while writing all of their business logic in a single language (or reusing existing application code).

    Xamarin applications can be created on a PC or a Mac and compiled into native application packages, such as an .apk file for Android or an .ipa file for iOS.

    Xamarin Platform Features

    Xamarin Platform has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

    • Complete binding for the supporting SDKs: Xamarin includes bindings for almost all of the underlying platform SDKs in iOS and Android.
    • Java, C, Objective-C, C, C++ Interop: Xamarin gives you the ability to use a variety of third-party code by providing tools for directly invoking Objective-C, Java, C, and C++ libraries.
    • Modern language constructs: Xamarin applications are written in C#, a modern language with many capabilities that Objective-C and Java do not have, like lambdas, LINQ, parallel programming, generics, and more.
    • Strong base class library (BCL): Xamarin apps use the .NET BCL, a large collection of classes with streamlined features, like powerful XML, database, serialization, IO, string, and networking support, among others.

    Xamarin Platform Benefits

    There are many benefits to implementing the Xamarin Platform. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

    • Native UIs and APIs: Xamarin delivers comprehensive access to each platform's native SDK and UI controls, projecting the entire native API of each device into C#. Therefore, the apps you develop are native instead of write-once/run-anywhere programs that look alien on every platform. Xamarin provides you access to all of the capabilities that distinguish each platform.
    • Share code between platforms: With Xamarin, you can share all code across platforms while providing a native user interface tailored to each individual device. With Xamarin, you can execute the same C# code on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. With Xamarin, your software is compiled to a native binary rather than being interpreted, in contrast to other cross-platform frameworks. Even in the most demanding situations, native compilation provides users with excellent app performance. Xamarin provides responsive, multi-user input and feedback, fluid scrolling, sophisticated graphics and animations, complicated data visualization, and realistic high frame rates for games.
    • Code with C#: Write shorter, more concise, and more maintainable code by leveraging advanced language features, such as Language Integrated Query (LINQ), delegates, lambdas, events, garbage collection, and many other features. With Xamarin's fully extensible platform, you can include libraries written in C, Objective-C, C++, or Java. In C#, you have access to the entire native ecosystem of components and libraries.

    Sample Customers
    Information Not Available
    Cinemark, MixRadio, Sqor Sports, Storyo, JetBlue, The World Bank, Cr_dito Agrcola, Applied Research Associates
    Top Industries
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Educational Organization8%
    Construction Company7%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm29%
    Music Company14%
    Manufacturing Company14%
    Computer Software Company14%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Manufacturing Company11%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Educational Organization8%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business43%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise43%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business32%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise53%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business47%
    Midsize Enterprise12%
    Large Enterprise41%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business24%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise60%
    Buyer's Guide
    Apple Xcode vs. Xamarin Platform
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Apple Xcode vs. Xamarin Platform and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Apple Xcode is ranked 10th in Mobile Development Platforms with 7 reviews while Xamarin Platform is ranked 5th in Mobile Development Platforms with 37 reviews. Apple Xcode is rated 7.6, while Xamarin Platform is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Apple Xcode writes "Efficient, up-to-date, and straightforward installation". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Xamarin Platform writes "It's about to be retired and replaced with an inferior product, but offers excellent cross-platform development capabilities". Apple Xcode is most compared with Appium, OutSystems, Microsoft Azure App Service and ServiceNow, whereas Xamarin Platform is most compared with Appium, Ionic, OutSystems, Mendix and SAP Mobile Platform. See our Apple Xcode vs. Xamarin Platform report.

    See our list of best Mobile Development Platforms vendors.

    We monitor all Mobile Development Platforms reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.